sent two more of my staff, Colonel McPherson and Captain Rowley, to bring him up with his division.  They reported finding him marching towards Purdy, Bethel, or some point west from the river, and farther from Pittsburg by several miles than when he started.  The road from his first position to Pittsburg landing was direct and near the river.  Between the two points a bridge had been built across Snake Creek by our troops, at which Wallace’s command had assisted, expressly to enable the troops at the two places to support each other in case of need.  Wallace did not arrive in time to take part in the first day’s fight.  General Wallace has since claimed that the order delivered to him by Captain Baxter was simply to join the right of the army, and that the road over which he marched would have taken him to the road from Pittsburg to Purdy where it crosses Owl Creek on the right of Sherman; but this is not where I had ordered him nor where I wanted him to go.

I never could see and do not now see why any order was necessary further than to direct him to come to Pittsburg landing, without specifying by what route.  His was one of three veteran divisions that had been in battle, and its absence was severely felt.  Later in the war General Wallace would not have made the mistake that he committed on the 6th of April, 1862.  I presume his idea was that by taking the route he did he would be able to come around on the flank or rear of the enemy, and thus perform an act of heroism that would redound to the credit of his command, as well as to the benefit of his country.

Some two or three miles from Pittsburg landing was a log meeting-house called Shiloh.  It stood on the ridge which divides the waters of Snake and Lick creeks, the former emptying into the Tennessee just north of Pittsburg landing, and the latter south.  This point was the key to our position and was held by Sherman.  His division was at that time wholly raw, no part of it ever having been in an engagement; but I thought this deficiency was more than made up by the superiority of the commander.  McClernand was on Sherman’s left, with troops that had been engaged at forts Henry and Donelson and were therefore veterans so far as western troops had become such at that stage of the war.  Next to McClernand came Prentiss with a raw division, and on the extreme left, Stuart with one brigade of Sherman’s division.  Hurlbut was in rear of Prentiss, massed, and in reserve at the time of the onset.  The division of General C. F. Smith was on the right, also in reserve.  General Smith was still sick in bed at Savannah, but within hearing of our guns.  His services would no doubt have been of inestimable value had his health permitted his presence.  The command of his division devolved upon Brigadier-General W. H. L. Wallace, a most estimable and able officer; a veteran too, for he had served a year in the Mexican war and had been with his command at Henry and Donelson.  Wallace was mortally wounded in the first day’s engagement, and with the change of commanders thus necessarily effected in the heat of battle the efficiency of his division was much weakened.